I recently went on a little excursion to visit some of my dearest friends in NYC. I knew it was going to be a good trip when I looked out my airplane window and was greeted with an unusually awesome view of the city. I think NYC had made itself extra presentable just in time for my arrival.
It felt good to be back.
But once I landed, I was quickly reminded of how much a pain in the arse this city can be at times. For example – having to take 3 different modes of transportation to get to your final destination so you can avoid shelling out $40 for cab fare is just a tad bit absurd. But I did appreciate the lovely artwork I found on the subway. It’s all a give and take I suppose.
This picture pretty much sums up the many amusing characters I witnessed on the various modes of transportation I had to take that afternoon:
Once I got into the city I had a reunion of epic proportions with all my friends (one just so happens to be a fellow blogger as well. check it out!: wwww.aninediblesandwich.com). After many hours were spent exchanging stories and travel tales we headed to Central Park to enjoy the BEAUTimous weather that had just arrived in the city.
It was glorious.
There was an abundance of amigos, Whole Foods guac and puppies. Score, score and score. By the way, check out that Maelu turban style head band. You like? It’ll be up on my Etsy store soon! wooo!
I got extra lucky because a Central Park dance party was on the agenda for the evening as well.
and giant bubbles!!!
I want to be that kid.
But not really… because that switcheroo could get awkward.
On another note, my roommate Linda played Santa and made me OH so happy by passing along her old Iphone to me. I’ve been using a go phone since I came back to the states and while it works just fine and has all the functions that I really need, people are constantly mortified that I get by with a phone that looks like it was pulled from the days of Saved by the Bell. Okay, so I’m not cool… I’m alright with that, but at times I do wish that I had a smart phone so I can take those sweet on the go pictures without having to lug my big ol’ Nikon around. And now, thanks to Linda, all my smart phone camera dreams have come true. Also now thanks to Linda, I have wasted many an hour on Words with Friends and Instagram. Iphone side effects.
See Iphone camera evidence below. I successfully used it to document an after work apartment birthday picnic – complete with homemade pizzas, cupcakes, wine and a group singalong to “ Call Me Maybe“.
Perfection.
A while back I posted about how I had scoped out some amazing hand block printed naturally dyed fabric towards the end of my Asia backpacking adventure. One of the ultimate goals of this whole quit-my-job-travel-around-the-world idea was to eventually start my own small clothing company. Sooo I’m super pumped to introduce to everyone Maelu, my little company that revolves around ethically sourced textiles made with all natural materials. 
I’ve been busy sewing up a variety of scarves and putting them up on Etsy – which is pretty much the most amazing website to ever exist. I really think Etsy has made crafting and sewing cool again, and for that I absolutely love it..and I may or may not spend about 1/4 of my total existence on that website..but that’s a different story altogether… But In returning to the main point of this post – If you’re curious as to where you can find these scarves in case you want to purchase them for your mother, cousin, friend, neighbor, lover, etc. etc. you can find these and many other scarves in my Etsy shop right here at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaeluDesigns 
I opened the shop up a few weeks ago and it’s been a fun roller coaster ride ever since. Etsy has a “favorites” component that kind of works similar to the “like” button on Facebook. The first few days my shop was open I noticed that my items would get a few likes here and there but nothing extraordinary for a new shop, then one day I logged in to Etsy and found that I had gotten about 100 “likes” in the span of a few hours! It was craziness. I knew something was up and eventually found out that one of my scarves had been featured on Etsy’s weekly online fashion newsletter. Check it out here - look out for the black and white tribal infinity scarf towards the bottom – that one’s mine! Needless to say I was ecstatic and it was a major confidence boost. What an amazing opportunity for Maelu! I hope you guys love these fabrics as much as I do, and if so then please help in spreading the word about Maelu and everything that this business stands for. 
I’ll be consistently updating new products here on Megsiepedia, so definitely stay tuned!!
Photo taken at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.
This past Saturday was spent celebrating my good friend Meghan’s birthday in Athens, GA, home of our beloved University of Georgia. It was definitely a good time to say the least. Although, I think we might have consumed an over abundance of libations here and one too many chocolate chip pancakes here, but I’m not complaining – both were delicious and totally worth those calories.
Meghan is a fellow creative entrepreneur and she also happens to have some fabulous decorating abilities. Since I’m branching out in my new blogging endeavors I thought it might be kind of cool to spotlight some real life decor inspirations I come across here on Megsiepedia.
I love the combo of neutral tans and browns she used with the pop of blue thrown in there. Also that awesome rug (which I secretly want to steal once I find myself a permanent home) was found for $30 at Urban Outfitters – now that’s what I call a good deal. And that last picture is of the little corner she set up for Lula, pretty much the cutest labradoodle in the world.
Check it out!
Oh hello there. Did this absurdly large picture of cake happen to get your attention?
I sure hope so. It’s the end result of going crazy in a kitchen after being kitchen-less for 6 months.
I recently returned home from my world travels and since I’m no longer running around beaches in Thailand and villages in India, I’ve decided to start writing about all of the things that I love reading about on other blogs – namely things having to do with food and recipes, inspirational photography, Do It Yourself craft projects (DIY) and style and design – to name a few. Basically, I want to blog about whatever strikes my fancy that day, so bear with me and my blogging ADD. But you’re in luck, because for this post you get to read about CAKE! and Red velvet cake with cream cheese icing at that. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to cook for the people in my life. So I had returned home just in time for my mother’s birthday and I decided to surprise her with her favorite – red velvet cake made from scratch. I also wanted to make a fancy shmancy double layer cake which I’d never attempted before.
And the woman thought I had forgotten all about her birthday… silly her.
Things were going pretty well with the cake process. I didn’t have a cooling rack so I proceeded to get the layers out of the baking pans with the backside of a flat skillet. Hello ghetto cooking improvisation.
The cake came out moist and beautifully red and the cream cheese had just the perfect amount of sweetness. The last thing I had left to do was put in the Happy Birthday candles I had picked up. Unfortunately, this was about the point when things took a turn for the worse
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